Detailed Proposal for Interim Agreement Reported Ready for Cabinet Meeting

Premier Golda Meir intends to submit to the Cabinet, at its regular weekly meeting next Sunday, a detailed proposal for an interim solution of the Middle East stalemate that has been worked out by her and her “inner circle,” the newspaper Haaretz reported today. The proposal, it said, is that Israel will agree to a reopening of the Suez Canal if Egypt will declare and end to her belligerency against Israel. Under the reported Israeli plan, Israeli troops will withdraw 8 kilometers (5 to 6.2 miles) from the canal; no Egyptian troops are to move into the vacated areas, and Israel is to get detailed guarantees against a violation of this agreement by Egypt. The character of the guarantees sought by Israel is not yet clear. The progress of Sunday’s Cabinet meeting will depend on the kind of guarantees the United States is willing to offer. Other questions still to be hammered out involve the timing of the Israeli pullback – on the signing of the agreement or after the clearing of the canal; a new armistice with Egypt, and machinery for supervising such an armistice. Premier Meir’s “inner circle” consists of Deputy Premier Yigal Allon, Foreign Minister Abba Eban, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Minister-Without-Portfolio Israel Galili. The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee discussed an interim settlement today, with Eban in attendance.

Opposition leader Menachem Beigin demanded last night that a canal reopening be discussed separately from questions of withdrawal, territory or refugees. Speaking in Tel Aviv to the National Council of the Herut Party of which he is chairman. Beigin proposed that a mixed Israeli-Egyptian commission – on the lines of the one that functioned for 18 years – consider the canal question. It should, he added, make certain that Israeli ships flying Israeli flags be guaranteed access to the waterway. Beigin denounced the government’s readiness to retreat from the canal under an interim arrangement. The former Minister-Without-Portfolio warned that there were 65 Soviet ships in the Mediterranean, 25 of them warships, and a reopened canal would facilitate what he called Soviet Union expansionist schemes.

On another matter, Beigin suggested that Herut initiate negotiations with the Liberal Party for a total merger of the two factions, which now are parliamentarily united as Gahal. Beigin said he had already called on Liberal leader Yosef Sapir, former Minister of Commerce and Industry, to agree to talks shortly. He said Sapir, while not rejecting the idea, was skeptical about it, as many Liberals want to maintain their sovereignty.